TikTok, the famous Chinese short-form video-sharing app has been on a roller coaster for a while now on a highly bumpy ride. But finally, it seems like it will come to an even course soon by coming to some settlement with the US government.
For a couple of months, TikTok has been under the line of fire because of Chinese political tensions with countries like India, the USA, etc. While it is facing a ban in India, the US government was also not happy with it and had filed a class-action lawsuit against its parent company, ByteDance, by alleging them to be invasively collecting American users’ data and sending it off to the Chinese government. Citing TikTok as a national security threat, the US President Donald Trump had threatened and given an ultimatum to ByteDance to sell off its US operations to any American investor by 15th September. However, this date was later extended to 12th November.
ByteDance had started getting offers and bids from everywhere, and the most potentially speculated bidders with whom ByteDance was almost on the verge of signing a deal included big names such as Microsoft, Oracle, Walmart, SoftBank, and some others.
Before any deal could be signed, the Chinese government came forward with a reprised set of rules for the export of AI technology, which did not allow ByteDance to sell off its app without getting a license acquired by the Chinese government. The new terms also dictated that ByteDance cannot sell off the famous algorithm even if it sells its app. So, it would have been just TikTok without its algorithm that anyone could have. Even then, TikTok’s competitor app Triller was ready to acquire it for $20 billion even without its much-coveted algorithm. However, this whole new situation had managed to halt the talks between ByteDance and different investors.
And now, it has been reported by the Wall Street Journal that ByteDance and the US government may come to some other possible arrangement that would prevent a full sale of TikTok’s operations in the U.S. In an extremely anti-climactic way, this whole drama of so many months seems to be coming to an abrupt end eventually!
As per The Wall Street Journal, there are several other options for ByteDance and the discussions with the US government about avoiding the sales are going on. It might happen that TikTok will continue functioning in the US after going through a structural makeover that would make the US government happy and both parties may come to a satisfying arrangement about the American users’ data. 15th September is just around the corner and no one knows what will happen after the ‘D day,’ as it has been labeled by the employees of TikTok.
Photo: VCG via Getty Images
Read next: 87% TikTokors Say That The Reels Feature Of Instagram Is Basically The Same As The TikTok App
For a couple of months, TikTok has been under the line of fire because of Chinese political tensions with countries like India, the USA, etc. While it is facing a ban in India, the US government was also not happy with it and had filed a class-action lawsuit against its parent company, ByteDance, by alleging them to be invasively collecting American users’ data and sending it off to the Chinese government. Citing TikTok as a national security threat, the US President Donald Trump had threatened and given an ultimatum to ByteDance to sell off its US operations to any American investor by 15th September. However, this date was later extended to 12th November.
ByteDance had started getting offers and bids from everywhere, and the most potentially speculated bidders with whom ByteDance was almost on the verge of signing a deal included big names such as Microsoft, Oracle, Walmart, SoftBank, and some others.
Before any deal could be signed, the Chinese government came forward with a reprised set of rules for the export of AI technology, which did not allow ByteDance to sell off its app without getting a license acquired by the Chinese government. The new terms also dictated that ByteDance cannot sell off the famous algorithm even if it sells its app. So, it would have been just TikTok without its algorithm that anyone could have. Even then, TikTok’s competitor app Triller was ready to acquire it for $20 billion even without its much-coveted algorithm. However, this whole new situation had managed to halt the talks between ByteDance and different investors.
And now, it has been reported by the Wall Street Journal that ByteDance and the US government may come to some other possible arrangement that would prevent a full sale of TikTok’s operations in the U.S. In an extremely anti-climactic way, this whole drama of so many months seems to be coming to an abrupt end eventually!
As per The Wall Street Journal, there are several other options for ByteDance and the discussions with the US government about avoiding the sales are going on. It might happen that TikTok will continue functioning in the US after going through a structural makeover that would make the US government happy and both parties may come to a satisfying arrangement about the American users’ data. 15th September is just around the corner and no one knows what will happen after the ‘D day,’ as it has been labeled by the employees of TikTok.
Photo: VCG via Getty Images
Read next: 87% TikTokors Say That The Reels Feature Of Instagram Is Basically The Same As The TikTok App
